1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a jig apparatus for use in application of a solder coat to the lead frames of works such as ICs to be soldered. More particularly, the invention is concerned with a jig apparatus adapted to be mounted on a conveyor line of an automatic soldering line, while arraying and supporting the work.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 57269/1983, the conventional jig of the kind described is constituted by frames adapted to be retained by the conveyor holder of the soldering line, a plurality of pairs of lower steel wires stretched between adjacent frames and adapted to support the lower part of the work, a plurality of pairs of upper steel wires extended above said lower steel wires along both side surfaces of the body of the work, the upper steel wires being secured at their one end to said frames, gate members supporting the other end of said upper steel wires and movable up and down with respect to the frames, and work insertion openings formed in the frames such as to oppose the gate members. In use, the work such as ICs is inserted through the insertion openings onto two lower steel wires past the space under the gate members in the raised position, and the gate members are lowered so that the work is pressed and held by two upper steel wires.
In this known jig apparatus, the upper steel wires of each pair can be reinforced by an intermediate supporting bar which connects the intermediate regions of these steel wires, thus preventing any deformation of the steel wires. In the case of the lower steel wires, however, it is impossible to reinforce these steel wires by a member such as the intermediate bar connecting mid portions of the wires of each pair, because of a fear that a part such as the lead frame of the IC may interfere with the intermediate supporting bar during the sliding of the IC along the lower steel wires to the innermost position. It is, therefore, quite difficult to maintain the parallelism and linearity of two lower steel wires of all pairs. Lack of linearity of the lower steel wires tend to cause problems such as dropping the ICs.